I’ve been following part of this story on the cable news shows – hundreds (if not thousands) of Americans are now in some kind of legal limbo because they were in the midst of the months- (sometimes years-) long process of adopting Russian children, and Pres. Vladimir Putin just ended foreign adoptions to the US. Putin has various reasons, but there are a lot of American couples who are really freaking out, and the State Department is getting involved and it’s a huge mess. So here comes Angelina Jolie to soothe the situation with her diplomacy and bartering, that is, if you believe the Enquirer. The Enquirer claims that Angelina has “reached out” to Pres. Putin to see if there’s anything she can do to get this adoption thing resolved. “Anything” being “convincing Brad to hold their wedding in Moscow.”
The Hollywood humanitarian has approached Russian President Vladimir Putin about repealing the nation’s recent ban on Americans adopting children from his country, sources say. And the powerful politician responded by asking Angie – the mother of three adopted kids – to tie the knot with Brad Pitt in Russia, insiders say.
“Instead of selling her wedding photos for millions and donating the money to charity, Angelina now has the chance to make a political statement with her walk down the aisle,” a source told The ENQUIRER. “After she asked President Putin to relax his country’s new adoption policy, he agreed to consider it – IF she agrees to marry Brad Pitt in a high-profile ceremony in the heart of Moscow or one of the famous palaces in St. Petersburg.”
On Dec. 28, Putin signed a bill that bans U.S. citizens from adopting Russian children, raising tensions with Washington.
“Angelina thinks the adoption ban is retaliation against a new U.S. law seeking to punish Russians accused of human-rights violations,” explained the source. “She went through diplomatic channels to extend an olive branch to Putin in an attempt to smooth over strained relations between the countries.”
The 37-year-old actress has promoted humanitarian causes around the globe for over a decade as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
“In light of Angelina’s rank in the diplomatic community, it will be difficult for Putin to dismiss her out of hand,” noted the source.
More than 45,000 Russian orphans have been adopted by American parents since 1999, and Angelina herself once considered taking home a Russian toddler.
As The ENQUIRER reported in 2005, the “Tomb Raider” star lost her heart to a 15-month-old boy in a Moscow orphanage. In the end, she chose not to adopt him, saying her Cambodian-born son Maddox was not “quite ready” for a sibling. Since then, she’s adopted children from Vietnam and Ethiopia and had three biological kids with Brad.
The source concluded: “Getting Putin to change Russia’s policy would not only help numerous orphans, but also be a major coup for Angie.”
I mean… it’s probably BS, right? But you never know with Angelina. The thing is, I could totally see her writing a letter to Pres. Putin or using her UN credentials to get a meeting with him. I wonder how that overture began? “Dear Vlad, You might not know me but I played a Russian spy in Salt. HUZZAH.” Also: I’ve always wanted to see St. Petersburg. I’ve always wanted to visit the Hermitage. Why wouldn’t Angelina and Brad want to marry in some beautiful Russian locale? That is, if they’re not already married.
Photos of Angelina & Putin (separately) in Russia, courtesy of WENN.
Yeah… I’d like to see anyone try and sweet-talk Vlad into anything.
LOL….. a ‘former’ KGB operative would need something a bit more substantial than a has-been actress famous mostly for her relationships and sticking her leg out of dresses to make him change his mind.
I agree that Putin wouldn’t likely offering to change his policy if she tie the knot with Pitt in Russia. LOL. Life is not as easy as a story in a tabloid. 😀
But she still have the star power outside the US since she’s not overexposed by the foreign media unlike here in the US. Outside the US, she’s famous mostly for her UN’s role and her movies plus her family.
Angelina just got $20M plus 1st dollar gross backend for her latest film and is slated to direct a major studio film for her next project. This is after taking major chunks of time off over the past decade to raise her family. She works whenever she wants with whomever she wants. If she’s a has-been, then all those other actresses are never-weres!
If it helps you get through the day,keep thinking she is a has been actress.Oscar nominee Ang Lee just mentioned he wants to direct her in Cleopatra budget rumored to be $200 million.NE story is BS
Putine likes to sweet-talk with the celebrities: with Leo Dicaprio about the protection of tigers whereas he is himself a tiger hunter ,with Gerard Depardieu on the culture & democraty whereas he’s Putine….
ha, my thoughts exactly. he’s an arsehole (and that’s being nice) that won’t be sweet talked into anything.
@rhea Outside the US, she’s just considered for her looks. No one really takes her family or UN role seriously. She’s not considered as a very good actress in countries that have very good actresses like in France. She’s just an American star, with money.
I’m gonna have to agree with Loulou on this, it’s the same here in Italy too.
She’s known as just a super-glam Hollywood star.
Don’t know about other countries, though, maybe it’s different in England?
@Loulou : My point is that it’s not really accurate saying she’s a has been actress since that would mean she has no star power to bring any box office in her movie AT ALL.
Because clearly, she could still bringing a lot of money from her movie outside the US. People could say that she’s not that good as an actress—but like it or not, she still have the star power that not in the same level like The Kardashians for example. Hence, the Enquirer making up this stupid story. LOL.
Regarding your post saying that countries with very good actresses wouldn’t think of her as a good actress or even her role in UN seriously, I would only say that not every country in the world—even those with very good local actresses—thinking the same as in France. 🙂
As for her family, like I said—she’s not overexposed by the foreign media—so mostly not that many people outside the US obsessing about her family like here in the US. 😀
This exactly. P and his corrupt government are beyond any reasoning, and the idea that some hollywood actress can change his mind made me laugh bitterly.
Also, I always wonder, why are most English-speaking people calling him Vlad? I wouldn’t mind using it as short form for Vladimir, but the problem is that Vlad is a completely different Russian name.
Oh, my bad, didn’t know that! My first language is actually Italian, and I just assumed Vlad would work as a diminutive 🙂
Yeap it’s winter sale time in Russia. Buy one and another one you can get free!!!
B.S.
She wouldn’t be able to change his opinion on what he wants for lunch.
This man, and his govt., are demonstrating they can be far more stubborn and extreme than anything that can be smoothed over by a pretty actress. It’s a shame for the children and couples caught in limbo, I sadly don’t think it will be resolved anytime soon.
Sigh, wonder what will happen to the kids.
I’d love to visit Russia, but damn Putin scares the hell out of me.
Putin would need something far more than just a wedding. Maybe this is inspired after he offered Depardieu a citizenship and they thought, hey, he’s up to these artsy types! Yeah right. All that matters in politics is winning and having a moment fun in Moscow is not that.
My completely superficial contribution to this conversation is that Putin looks like a bond Villain.
Daniel Craig looks like a KGB agent in the US movies
YES! YES! YES! x infinity!!
even with the BOND make-over of Craig, i always think he is straight out of central casting for Russian KGB.
From what I’ve heard there are 40 kids in limbo, meaning they were already confirmed to be adopted by Russian court, and they would (most likely) to be allowed to leave the country. But officials would re-check the decision “case-by-case” as they called it.
I want to adopt myself, so I follow these developments very closely. There are a lot of speculations and lots of political bs around this case. It’s not that easy and straightforward.
A noble pursuit, I hope turns out well for you.
It sounds like even he knows there won’t be a Jolie-Pitt wedding. LOL.
If Brad and Angelina still care for rights equality, St. Petersburg is probably NOT the place to get married because since 2012 St. Petersburg’s law criminalises “action aimed at propagandising sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism, and transgenderism”. It basically means that you´re not allowed to even talk about anything LGBT related.
>>> http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-04-17/world/35454165_1_anti-gay-law-gay-rights-gay-activists
With her bionic leg Angelina can save the world…and Channing Tatum looks good in these photos – wheres Jenna?
She’s morphing into Geena Davis.
Geena Davis is gorgeous.
Good Lord she is beautiful.
Where is Angelina? I miss her
I don’t like the hair at all. Is it all her own? It looks shaggy and the colour is off. I love that they’re going for a natural look for her since that is her thing… but its kind of bland and choppy and heavy looking and its not doing much for her skin tone or facial features.
Those are the worst photos I’ve seen of her.that hair is disgusting:/
I agree…her hair looks terrible here. The other thing I notice is that she really has an oddly shaped figure. Very boxy.
She gets the “boxy” figure from her father. I think it’s pretty cute how much her and James Haven’s figures are like his.
Goddamit i miss this woman :L
I know I’m gonna get flamed for saying this, but I REALLY liked Salt and typically I think her movies are pretty menh (excluding Gia) even though I do kinda like her *shields self from rocks*
All I can say… all I can think… is how AMAZING she looks. She blows me away every time I see her. In that red dress?!? OMG I am such a fan and I know it!
For the people complaining that I only care about dogs they are wrong. I have been following this Russian adoption problem in the media for several years now. I am saddened by this decision. It is heartbreaking that adults would put their own bruised egos ahead of the needs of children. It makes me cry just reading about it and writing about it. Can you imagine these kids who thought they had parents and now might not get to see them again? They will feel abandoned and unworthy.
Things are not that bad. Many kids are simply going to be adopted by… Russians. Right now, it is rather difficult for Russians to find a relatively healthy Slavic kid because it is more profitable for an official to give them to a foreign adoption agency for a bribe. Yes, I know that the statement about healthy and Slavic sounds obnoxious but truth to be told both Russians and Americans are looking there for blue-eyed blonds. (The rule is that a kid needs to be 2 times rejected by Russians before becoming eligible for foreign adoption but there are many easy ways to manipulate this rule. It’s not a secret but you can’t fight this corruption.
Yes, there are incredibly kind people here in America, who adopt Russian children with multiple disabilities but they are in minority.
Maybe I’m being overly sensitive but am I a meanie for only adopting a child from Russia without multiple disabilities? At least I gave an abandoned child a home.
And NO we were not allowed to specify the hair and eye color of our child, and of course we wouldn’t have but then we went through a reputable adoption agency.
My husband and I came to the adoption agency 16 years ago because we wanted to be parents. The agency suggested Russia because at the time it had the least red tape, but we would have been happy to adopt from China, Africa, South America wherever, we so wanted to give a child a home.
I too admire people who adopt children with multiple disabilities but please don’t imply that those who don’t are on the prowl for Ana Kornikova clones.
‘Finding a healthy Slavic kid”… yeah, ’cause only Slavic kids need parents, right?
How about they go and adopt a non-Slavic kid. No? Too colored for them? They would rather not adopt then have such a thing in their house – that is how much they want to be parents!
Yeah, these people totally deserve being catered to.
The problem with Russian people adopting is that they all want a healthy Slavic kid not older the a year.
The rest however?
Let them rot alive. Better that than go to the US, right?
It’s a very painful topic, mystified, and Russians are most grateful to those who adopted their kids when they could not do it themselves. They are grateful and they are ashamed, too – let it be clear. But the situation has changed dramatically over the past 16 years.
First of all, local society is richer now and they can AFFORD to adopt nowadays; secondly, adoption has become a regular action while prior to that it was an outstanding event;
thirdly – and most importantly — right now the generation of 90s has reached a child-bearing age. And the generation of 90s is the smallest among the decade’s population since 2nd world war. (plus their parents’ parents were born during the war as well, so there is a gap there as well.) Bottom line, there are not enough (healthy) kids for locals. And those locals cannot afford to adopt a kid from another country. That’s it.
“The problem with Russian people adopting is that they all want a healthy Slavic kid not older the a year.
The rest however?
Let them rot alive. Better that than go to the US, right?”
Please stop with this political bs, Jae. WTF do you know about ALL Russians? And yes, many Americans prefer to adopt Slavic looking pretty kids rather than a kid with disability, which Russians can adopt themselves. What’s to argue about?
“WTF do you know about ALL Russians?”
I know what being blonde, having Slavic features and a second name ‘Ivanova’ means in Russia.
Tell me, how often do Russians adopt healthy, yes, healthy, Tajik kids? Healthy Tatar kids? Healthy Caucasian kids, Caucasian not in the way they mean it in the US, but Caucasian in the way we mean it in Russia?
Stop with the ‘they want Slavic too!” bulls*t, please. Slavic is not Anglo-Saxon, it doesn’t mean nearly as much in the world as it does in Russia. Despite our collective delusions we are not considered a higher race anywhere but in Mother Russia.
Do you actually realize what you are saying?
That the Russians will now be able to adopt “healthy Slavic”, while they couldn’t before?
You realize that if you are right, that means, that while those precious healthy Slavic kids were able to find homes before and will still be able to find them now, the chances of the rest have evaporated: those that might have considered them before as a low-rate second option will now surely go for “healthy Slavic”? That the disabled and Non-Slavic kids are now wanted even less than they were before? And that somehow is a good thing?
Yeah… that is a ‘let them rot!’
Russian people, whose willingness to adopt disappeared when they realize that they can’t get ‘healthy Slavic”? Yeah, f*ck those guys. I don’t see how making life easier for those sh*theads at the expense of the children is a good thing.
Another Nina: I appreciate your thoughtful response. You’ve given me a lot of food for thought. Hope I wasn’t being too touchy.
I worry very much about the fate of those poor orphans and all orphans around the world. I hope and pray that they all find loving homes and that I become the best parent that I can be to the one I have.
Another thing the adoption agency told us is that since we didn’t specify the sex off our child, we would almost certainly get a boy (which we did) . Apparently most Russians want to adopt girls unlike in most other countries.
Joe: You make it seem as is people who want to adopt infants are evil or something. [Children that foreigners adopt would have to be at leasst 6 months because they have to have been abandoned for 6 months to be considered adoptable.]
My husband and I are not rich. We adopted our son at 18 months. Even though he was supposedly healthy we incurred some medical expenses for therapy and for his extremely poor teeth (most likely due to poor prenatal nutrition) .
Older children are likely to require more resources. Maybe if we had had Jolie-Pitt resources we could have adopted child with greater needs. Part of being a good adoptive parent is knowing how much you can take on.
Joe, since you seem to like to judge others, why don’t you criticize those who spend their resources on big houses, nice cars and exotic vacations and hobbies instead of adopting any needy children?
Your home is, of course full of older adopted children with all sorts of multiple disabilies. Right?
The thing most people are forgetting about Russia is that they have a very strong solid political alliance with the Chinese, Brazillians, Indians, and South Africans due to the BRICS treaty they all signed. The political posturing about the children being adopted is similar to the noise China made several years ago when their children were also being adopted. And Angelina Jolie~holy moley what an incredibly beautiful and fascinating woman! She just gets better over time~
Hmmm…sorry, but, what has BRIC got to do with Russian laws on adoption that targets only the US? The matter is bilateral – US-Russia – than multilateral involving the BRIC nations. Unless you mean that the BRIC nations are all coming together on this, which is unlikely. The Russian ban is a response to the US Magnitsky Act.
There’s a law in the works in Russia that would ban all foreign adoptions, with the exeption of France and Italy. AND the politician who proposed that law (from Putin’s party, of course) has publicly stated that his aim is to eventually stop adoptions from those countries as well. This is about nationalistic posturing for these people, Russia’s middle class is fleeing the country and they are trying to hold onto anyone they can, the well-being of the children in question be damned.
she should just sleep with him.
She is one busy lady..always making a difference in this world.I never see lying around the same beach ,year after year,hugging awards …
Will there ever come a day where a story about Angeline Jolie won’t come with a nasty comment about Jennifer Aniston? Is that possible? What on earth does she have to do with this story? Seriously?
Nope! It’ll never happen because some of these loons will never get over the fact that she was married to Pitt when he was half decent looking and Angie’s getting seconds. Sorry I just couldn’t resist. I’m bad.
No but I’ve seen her crawling around on a beach wearing a tent!
yeah, playing with her children!
Better that than crotch shots every year.
Oh c’mon dont take it so seriously.
I wish someone could talk some sense into Putin, but this is political posturing and those kids & their adoptive families are collateral damage.
I wrote about the situation in reply to TG — above. Things are not that bad. There are many political games from both sides.
Can she get that nose any higher in the air? Whoa!
Well if she did write a letter to him than good for her. Anything to make this nutcase rethink his position. How sick is it that he would rather have children in orphanages than in loving homes.
I haven’t been following this recently, but public opinion in Russia went very much against foreign adoptions when one American family put a Russian adoptee on a plane alone to send him back… A significant number of American families bit off much more than they could chew with adoptions from that area of the world. Russian orphanages historically have been pretty bad and the birth mothers (in an area where alcoholism has always been a major problem) were often heavy drinkers and malnourished as a result, causing many developmental problems. Poor orphanage conditions also caused many problems for the children after birth that can’t be fixed by just plucking them from their home culture and dropping them into a new family. Even toddlers under such conditions can have serious abandonment issues and attachment disorders – some children are more resilient and adapt well, but some others must feel like they’ve been abducted by aliens. EVERYTHING changes: sounds (linguistic and others), smells, tastes (food), faces of people around them, etc. Just look up “attachment disorder” and “adoption” and you’ll see what parents are dealing with even with children not from a different culture. International adoptions just add to the potential stress for the child, even if in many ways it is beneficial for them. And in the USA, parents don’t have the same resources for getting help for their children with physical or mental/emotional disabilities as they might in countries with a reasonable health care system accessible to everybody. I don’t blame adoptive parents for looking to adopt kids who at least arrive healthy, not many have the ability to deal with both the usual problems stemming from the adoption and prior history of their child plus trying to navigate our system to get help for a disabled child.
Yes, that’s a good synopsis of the situation.
On top of that, in 90s, there were plenty of kids, whose parent(s) were young and poor and could not afford to take care of kid.
Right now, there is a very high percentage of kids with anti-social parents i.e. alcohol/drug-dependent or parents serving time in prisons. Those kids have inherited all sorts of syndromes.
I don’t have much sympathy for the woman who sent her son back. I’m embarrassed to say that she and I are from the same state. We had two very good local adoption agencies, but she used an out of state one. I wonder why? I suspect that she may have been rejected by other agencies. My husband and I had to undergo very thorough background checks — finger prints, medical records, police reports etc. Our agency also made sure that we understood that there maybe unforeseen medical and emotional problems and made us aware of local resources. Yet this “mother” never even took her son to the doctor, much less a specialist before deciding to wash her hands of him.
She has truly perfected the haughty, “I’m better than everyone else on the planet” look.
Always interesting how people like you work so hard to find something negative.
I have never seen a quote from anyone that has ever met Angelina to say she thought she was better then anyone. She has never had a diva attitude on any set. Never had anyone that has met her in person to say anything negative. In fact they go on and on about how down to earth she is. How sweet. Most rave on ad on about the experience.
so you perception is yours. But I go by people that have actually encountered her. AND I also note that the people that don’t like her tend to believer tabloid stories. I go by real accounts.
And she looks so beautiful in that red dress. But then she is beautiful so she would look gorgeous in anything.
I find this whole situation to be terrible. I follow a lot of the Down Syndrome community as they go through adoptions on Russia. Children with disabilities have a tendency to be abandoned and are hardly ever adopted. Once they hit 4, they’re sent to adult homes and hardly given any care. It’s heartbreaking. So many families are in the middle of adopting these kids and aren’t even sure they’ll ever be able to bring them home. 🙁